Stuff I Just Got Done

 

A Gathering of Ghosts

 I actually got the fall and halloween done early this year, apparently ahead of people wanting it, sales are slow.  I think now that all the real shops are open, people are less likely to browse eBay.  Fretting and worrying about the old Deltas and Lambdas as husband recently sent 2 fully vaccinated people to hospital with severe covid, it is not looking good.

Good news is my daughter's best friend has moved in with us for the college year.  We had a house full of kids making pizza last night, I very much enjoyed all the noise and laughter.

Fate Deals Another Crushing Blow

 My girls are both in college, after homeschool, they have had to work extra hard to make friends, a bit difficult when their peers seldom look up from their phones.  They managed to create a group of wonderful friends despite this.  Anna met Raven in her education classes.  Raven worked at Home Goods and helped Anna get a part time job there as well.  There, they met Trinity and Michelle and Ashleigh.  They got together on their days off to shop and just be friends.  My youngest, Grace joined the group and she and Ashleigh hit it off immediately.  They are the same age, the "little sisters" of the group and my introverted Grace came out blooming with this new friendship.  On Ashleigh's 18th birthday, all the girls surprised her with dinner at a fancy sushi restaurant, followed by an evening at the "escape room", where they had to solve a mystery of a missing necklace in a house full of antiques.  They had such a great time.  One week later, Memorial weekend, we are all out shopping as a family.  I go into a store, the girls wanted to rest in the car.  I come out to find them crying as though their hearts would break.  "Mom, Ashleigh has been killed in a car crash."  She was with her grandparents and cousins going on a camping trip.  Their car crossed the line and hit a semi head on.  We will never know why.  Her grandmother and 9 year old cousin were also killed. Ashleigh was a rather amazing young woman.  Although just finishing her junior year in high school, she had already completed half of an associates degree and joined the air force.  She loved animals and worked at the local shelter on top of school, college and working.  She always tithed part of her salary to her church as well.  Our world will be less without her.

birthday party--Ashleigh has the light brown hair

Pretending Life is Normal

World continuing to go to hell in a handbasket, I'm just making things and pretending it is not happening.  Not working out perfectly, but I'm getting through the days.

Creative wise, I am doing some good work, here are a few pretty pictures.

The lilac blooming season is brief but glorious.

one of our oak trees split and had to be taken down--sad as that was, I was about hysterical when I realized the tree guys would flatten my garden to get to it.  All the daisies and peonies and iris were just starting to bloom, I bawled like a baby when they crushed it all.

Trudging Along

 More turmoil as we have had to move my mother in law in with us.  She has been living at home, but needs much assistance, which she was getting from her daughter and her grandson.  He killed himself over the weekend, a sordid story that I do not wish to tell.  I had 24 hours to remove everything from my work room to turn it into a bedroom, which was almost the worst part.  I was panicked at the thought of not being able to do what I have to do, which is lifting to get her upright, as she cannot get in and out of bed without assistance, nor stand without assistance and can only take a few steps with a walker.  Our house is old, long, floors of different heights, and the hallway to my old work room is impossibly small and so hard to get a wheelchair in and out of.  It has been improving, she is settling in and I am getting kind of used to what I have to do and trying not to think about how permanent a change this is to my life.  It has been definitely hard to tend to my shop this week, hoping I will find more time soon.  My husband is home today taking care of her, so I get a break, and just thought I would rediscover my blog.  Sigh.

Since I haven't been posting, I am just putting up some photos of things that have sold so I have a memory of them.

Next, I still have these things, I don't know why the mustard seed bread board is still around, it is some of my finest work.

2020 Draws to a Close

 It has been a year filled with anxiety and unbearable loss, and I have tried to make myself so busy that I won't think about the grief that is consuming so many of us.  I have gone even more over the top with my Christmas decorating this year, partly to keep my blinders on as I plow forward, partly to convince myself that I can make things right.  Wishing you all joy and peace in the coming year.

Prayer is All I Have Left

 My sister is not doing well, she has been moved to the ICU and I fear the worst and pray for a miracle.  She was given remdisivir (I am sure all my spellings are not right), steroids and antibiotics, but no plasma antibodies, which I think are the saving drug.  We have seen hydroxychloroquine work in my husband's clinic, but the doctors she saw would not use it.  All I have left is faith, and the test is real.